


The day shift and her shadow

by Vreliskriri



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27756529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vreliskriri/pseuds/Vreliskriri
Summary: "According to the locals, the Veres Archive is like any other small-town library. There's one librarian- sweet, helpful- and a corner with picture books where the families can drop off their kids. No locks, no magical wards, nothing that would point to the keeping of guarded secrets. That the place does hold forbidden knowledge is a remarkably open secret. The townsfolk are even a little proud of this, a little eager to say how little it matters to them. They want nothing to do with such awful things. Everyone here knows what becomes of knights and witches, and the librarian is a mainland girl- she should know better than anyone. She keeps the library safe, they say. After all, nothing has ever been stolen."-From the journal of Thief No. 358
Kudos: 1





	The day shift and her shadow

The lone librarian was a wisp of a girl, too much so to run a place like this all by herself. Yet there were no guards, no locks to keep people out from the Veres Archive, and the thief had ruled out magic on his way in. Still, he felt uneasy as he took the measure of her. He almost felt watched himself. It was ridiculous, of course. This was past closing time. No one else here but him and this… pretty little duster, powerless to stop him from indefinitely borrowing anything he liked. He could hardly believe no one else had robbed her blind by now.

 _”Perhaps,"_ he thought, _”I could be nice about this.”_

The girl turned at the sound of his footsteps, turned to him and froze. He hadn’t noticed her glasses. They had big, round, tinted lenses, milky red. He couldn’t see her eyes through them, but he assumed she saw him.

”It’s past closing time, sir. If there was a particular tome you wished to borrow, please name it now and I’ll have it for you at the front desk tomorrow morning.”  
He smiled. ”I can find it myself, Miss.”  
”Not on my watch, I’m afraid. Let me show you to the door.” The librarian offered him her hand as though he was a lost child. It was child’s play to grab her wrist and throw her against the nearest shelf, where she collapsed like a ragdoll. To be nice, he waited for her to try and get up.   
  
She did not.  
  
”Well, shit, I guess. Rest easy, Miss. Didn’t expect you to die so easy.”

It took no time at all to find what the thief was here for. The restricted sections weren’t markedly different from the rest of the library. It was all nice and organized, with no locked displays. No security, either. Here and there he stepped over a chalk pattern that could have been a ward, but the ones on his path were visibly unfinished or rushed, posing no danger. The cyclical containment wards were more refined, but those…

”You must have been quite mad,” the thief mused as he passed the girl. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her properly. He’d feel bad about this, later. When he didn’t feel so watched.

The front door swung open easily. He was grateful for the fresh air- it cleared his head.  
”All that work just to keep a suit of armor from taking a stroll?”  
”It’s not the worst idea an unwelcome guest has had.”

The thief tripped and fell down the front steps in his hurry to get away from the door. The librarian stepped out after him, smoothing down her skirts on the way. She didn’t need to run as she followed him out into the sun.

Suddenly it hit him. He had to stop to laugh. Trying to compose himself, he leaned to the closest support he could find- a sundial- and laughed some more.  
The girl was flipping through a small book when she caught up to him, her long shadow lumbering after her.

 _”Mr. Thief, Mr. Thief…_ Ah, there!” For the first time, the thief could really feel her looking at him. But she was just a girl who’d hit her head. Hard. Any time now, she’d pass out again.  
”The sun hasn’t set,” he said, straining to keep his voice steady. ”You’re not undead.”  
”I'm not undead, Mr. Thief,” she repeated with an absent smile. ”Now, you have something of mine.”  
”What’s the fee for a scrap of paper? Will my fists do?” He watched her take another, shaky step towards him, something like a knife in hand.

”I… No. I will have your all. Everything… every…thing… under… the…”  
The last rays of the sun fell on her face. Then, a soft thud as she collapsed, fell into the arms of a long, long shadow. His gaze was fixed on the thief.

**”Everything under the sun… My lady is too kind to you filth.”**


End file.
